


kiss each other clean

by disastersaurus



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-10
Updated: 2014-01-10
Packaged: 2018-01-08 05:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1128867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disastersaurus/pseuds/disastersaurus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fic tag for "The Rundown Job".</p>
            </blockquote>





	kiss each other clean

**Author's Note:**

> A tiny thing, found on an old hard drive.

A door opens and a cloud of steam gushes out, followed in short order by the world's best hacker in his Star Trek pajama pants.

  
"I just don't think I can ever feel clean again, you know? Like, I itch all over and that doesn't even make sense, because it's the flu and I'm pretty sure that's not even a symptom but—Parker?"

  
She's cross legged on his bed, which even now sends a thrill through him—Parker, on his bed—but most of him was concerned with the fact that she was sitting very, very still.

  
Parker doesn't do still. She's like—atoms, never quite at absolute zero. Vibrating with energy in her wiry little body, unless she's upset.

  
"You alright?"

  
She shakes herself a little, out of that strange, quiet trance she had been in, and gives him a bright, fake smile. It wobbles.

  
"Yeah. Fine."

  
Hardison tries not to wonder when it was that Parker had decided to learn to fake emotions—like the lady wasn't complicated enough, an enigma wrapped in a mystery et cetera—and goes to sit next to her. A touch on her shoulder—another thing that he hoped he'll never quite lose the thrill of, Parker leaning into his touch and not flinching away—and then she's wrapping herself around him, slim warm limbs and slightly damp blonde hair under his chin.

  
"Today, in the subway," she says into his neck. "I should have said—that I, that I lo—that I need you too." She's shaking a little, he realizes. He's never seen her like this, this fear in her instead of her usual sun-bright confidence.

  
"Shhh, baby," he says. He cradles her head, her shivering, precious shoulders. "I know. I know." She squeezes him tight for another few moments, before pulling away, still resting her hands on him.

  
"It's never been like this," she says, and her eyes are bright. "After jobs. I'm usually so—happy, and," She looks him in the eye. "I didn't think we were going to make it out of this one alive."

  
He swallows. She shifts her gaze.

  
"And even then, I couldn't. I—I couldn't say—"

  
He'd been afraid to say it. Afraid she'd cut and run, afraid she'd look away and break his heart.

  
After today, fear had kind of been put onto a different context.

  
He brushes the hair away from her face and lifts her chin.

  
"I love you," he says, and it scrapes getting out of his throat and catches in his lungs and it isn't perfect but it's there and she's still looking back at him and he thinks maybe they've got the same look in their eyes right now. "I love you," he says again, just because he can this time. "Babe, it's okay, it's okay if you can't say it, because it's alright, because I know, because I can say it enough for the both of us, just don't—just _be there_ , just, please, I don't think I can without you,"

  
He's babbling now and there's tears sliding down her face but when he raises a hand to wipe them away, she catches it with both hands and presses it to her heart. Her heartbeat, steady, strong, a little fast. Alive. This time it's him who nods and her who wraps her arms around him.

  
The hold each other throughout the night, hands pressed to each others' hearts. He knows now, deeper than words. But she'll still tell him, in the morning.


End file.
